1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an audio plug structure improvement, particularly to the audio plug obtaining power or signal from an audio jack without affecting normal use of a speaker of an electronic product.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the rapid development of computer and communications technology, electronic products have become increasingly popular; especially mobile phones have become one of the essential devices of modern people. At the same time, the industry continues to introduce new mobile phones with various functions for enhancing the convenience and practicality of mobile phones. For example, smart phones have become the market mainstream, and the all-inclusive applications won the love of consumers.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional earphone and 3.5 mm audio plug. The audio plug 10 is provided for inserting into an audio jack 12 of a mobile phone 11 and has the main function of transmitting signals. The U.S. Pat. No. 7,912,501 B2 of Apple Inc. as shown in FIG. 1B discloses an audio I/O headset plug comprising a plug 400 having four signal conducting regions divided by a insulation ring 405 and the signal conducting regions are numbered 1 to 4 wherein the signal conducting regions 2 to 4 has external diameter of 3.5 mm. Each signal conducting region has different signal transmission purpose as shown in FIG. 2. For example, for a non-stereo headset, the signal conducting region 1 is used for a single speaker and the signal conducting regions 2 and 3 are for grounding GND, and the signal conducting region 4 is used for a microphone Mic. Moreover, for different headset system, the signal conducting region has different signal transmission function. For example, for a stereo headset, the signal conducting regions 1 and 2 are left and right channels; for a headphone, the signal conducting regions 3 and 4 are for grounding. Thus, the disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 7,912,501 B2 mainly provides a plug and a plug detection circuitry.
However, the disclosed audio plug 10, 400 is a solid structure with several metal rods and three insulating ring 405 and the main function thereof as shown in FIG. 1B is to obtain signals by respectively connecting the signal conducting regions 1 to 4 with first to fourth terminals 121˜424 at a predetermined position in the audio jack 12. Thus, sounds including calls sound are transmitted through the signal conducting regions to the external headphone or microphone; therefore, the sounds will not be output from a speaker 13. That is, when the audio plug 10 is inserted into the audio jack of the headphone, only the incoming call sound can be heard; after pressing the answer key, the audio signal is transmitted to the headphone jack 12 not to the speaker 13. Furthermore, there is no internal space can be used so the audio jack 12 can only be used for obtaining audio signal. Therefore, there is room for improvement.